How to Succeed Politically in Bizarro World

Conn Carroll /
July 02, 2008

Let’s say you are the mayor of a major U.S. city and that since your first day in office you’ve been subverting federal laws designed to protect our country. And let’s say that after one of your city’s employees was arrested by federal officials for subverting federal law, instead of changing policy to comply with federal law, you invented a new policy that made it harder for federal officials to arrest your city’s employees. And finally, let’s say that your new policy caused undocumented Honduran crack dealers to be let loose in a middle class neighborhood 436 miles from your city. Facing this reckless disregard for the rule of law and public safety would you resign in shame?

Not if you are Mayor Gavin Newsome and your political base is the ultra-rich far left base of San Francisco. See if your the ultra left mayor of an ultra left city caught exporting the inevitable blow back of your disastrous immigration policies to poorer communities in your own state, the next logical step is to run for governor. The Los Angeles Times reports:

In an interview on the same day he announced that he would explore a run for governor, Newsom was pushed to balance the competing interests of a wide-open city with the need to sound tough on the volatile issue of immigration.

He blamed the courts in part and said the city could not be held entirely responsible for the snafus, pointing out that “every one of these transportation cases has a judicial order” sending the convicted youths “down south” or “over the border into Honduras.”